Cardiac rehabilitation decreases mortality through multifactorial interventions that promote health behaviors and reduce cardiac risk in patients with coronary artery disease. Little research is available, however, to explicate the recovery and adjustment of African-American cardiac patients. Thus, the proposed psychosocial intervention targets African-American male and female cardiac patients and their primary support providers. The proposed intervention unites established health promoting resources of social support and self-efficacy to supplement conventional cardiac rehabilitation. This investigation of the active involvement of a support provider with African American patients in cardiac rehabilitation, and the subsequent benefits to disease management and health outcomes is guided by three aims. Aim I. Determine whether African-American dyads receiving the proposed psychosocial intervention report more effective support exchanges than do those receiving conventional cardiac rehabilitation. Aim II. Determine whether patients and partners demonstrate better disease management and related health outcomes from the psychosocial intervention than from conventional cardiac rehabilitation. Aim III. Identify gender differences in the effectiveness of the proposed psychosocial intervention. The proposed intervention study will utilize a randomized, controlled design with one pre-intervention and three post-intervention assessments (at 6 weeks, at 6 months and at 1 year). Upon entry into the study, participants will be assigned to the dyad intervention or to conventional cardiac rehabilitation using a randomization scheme stratified by patient's gender. Dyads receiving the proposed supplemental intervention will be compared with those where patients are undergoing conventional cardiac rehabilitation. Most analyses will involve data from both patients and partners, and the dyad will represent the unit of analysis. Data analysis will focus on comparisons of the intervention and control groups, on analyses of dyadic effects, and on change in patient and partner health and behavior over time. Structural equation models and multilevel analyses will be used to conjoin analyses examining the anticipated benefits to those patients and their partners receiving the proposed intervention relative to those receiving conventional cardiac rehabilitation.